clinging

I imagine one of the reasons

 people cling to their hates so stubbornly
is because they sense, once hate is gone, 

they will be forced to deal with pain. 

*

Love takes off the masks

 that we fear we cannot live without 

and know we cannot live within. 

I use the word “love”

 here not merely in the personal sense

 but as a state of being,

 or a state of grace –

  ~ James Baldwin

from The Fire Next Time

art by Jumbo Prior 

from the Museum of  Tropical Queensland